The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt

Where? Room 254 of the New Hermitage building in the Hermitage Museum
When? 1668-1669
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What do you see? Six(!) people in front of an arched doorway. On the left, an old man lovingly embraces a young and bold man who bows his head in humility. This is his son who returned after a long time. While the father is dressed in beautiful clothes, the son is not. He wears old clothes with holes in it, and his sandals are worn and broken. He still wears the dagger on his belt that he needed to defend himself in the outside world.

On the right, at a little distance, is the older son of the old man. Dressed in a red cloak, he has his hands folded while holding a cane. He looks at his younger brother with a mix of disapproval and envy. It is not certain who the other three people in this painting are. The woman in the middle background may be a sister or the mother of the prodigal son. The seated man with a mustache may be an older servant.

On the top left, barely visible, is the silhouette of a female servant. Rembrandt uses light to emphasize the important aspects of the painting. The father and son are fully in the light, the older son is partially in the light, and the other people are in the darkness.

​Emotions in this painting: Like few others, Rembrandt is able to convey the emotions of the subjects in his painting. He has lived an eventful life and knows what it is to miss his children. People recognize the emotions in this work and this is the main reason that many are deeply touched by this work.

​You can see the father’s love in the embrace, and the tenderness in the way he puts his hands on his son’s back. The father's face is a bit pale and his cheeks appear a bit hollow, the effects of worrying for years about his missing son. And his face shows multiple emotions at the same time: grief about his son’s past behavior, relief that his son is back, and the love in being able to embrace his son. 

​Rembrandt is able to include multiple emotions at once in this painting, which is different from some earlier work that he did on this subject as illustrated in the two pictures below. The first picture is an etching from 1636 and the second one a drawing from 1642.

1636 etching by Rembrandt

1642 drawing by Rembrandt

The parable of the prodigal son: Luke 15: 11-32 describes a famous story that Jesus told to the Pharisees about a rich man and his two sons. The parable illustrates the Christian ideal of mercy. It relates to Luke 15:7, where Jesus says that there is more joy in Heaven over one sinner who regrets his sins than over 99 good people who need no change.

The parable describes that the younger of two sons asked his father for his share of the inheritance and left. He wastes his money and lives like a fool until he runs out of money. One day, he realizes how foolish he has been and decides to return home to his father and beg him for forgiveness. The father is very happy to get his son back and organizes a big party. The older son, however, is not so happy. While his younger brother was wasting his money and feasted with prostitutes, he has continued to work hard for his father’s business and has never gotten such a big party. The father tells the older son that everything he has is also owned by him, but that on this day he celebrates the life of his youngest son.

Backstory: This is the last major painting Rembrandt painted during his life, and it is probably the best-known of his religious works. The painting combines two elements from the Biblical story. The meeting between the father and the younger son, and the separate meeting between the father and the older son. According to Luke 15, the older brother is not present when the father is reunited with his youngest son. However, just like in the parable that Jesus told, it is not clear in this painting whether the oldest son will walk away from his younger son or will eventually welcome him back as well.

Moral message: Rembrandt did not use any clear symbols to convey the main message of this painting. He just shows the emotions of the father and the two sons, which convey a few important Biblical lessons. The father shows what mercy, a reference to how God forgives sinners who ask for forgiveness. And the younger son shows that you can always ask God for forgiveness for your mistakes. And the older son? He personifies the person who did not make many mistakes yet and followed God. But he also struggles with the idea that God is willing to forgive the mistakes of sinners. In this painting, we can see him struggle with the attitudes of his father and brother, and whether he put his jealousy aside and forgive his younger brother.

The Prodigal Son by other artists: To better understand what makes this painting by Rembrandt so special, it is helpful to compare Rembrandt’s version with those of some famous colleagues of him.

• In 1654/1655, Guercino painted a colorful and idealized version of The Return of the Prodigal Son in the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego.
• And between 1667 and 1670, Murillo created his version in the National Gallery of Art
• And Jan Steen painted the same subject, on display in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

​All versions have their unique elements, but none of them comes close to the powerful way in which Rembrandt incorporates human emotions.

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Guercino (1654-1655)

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Murillo (1667-1670)

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Steen (1668-1670)

Who is Rembrandt? Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) was a very talented painter from The Netherlands. He is considered as one of the most influential Baroque painters. Rembrandt had an eventful life in which he experienced many extreme situations of prosperity and adversity. Earlier in his career he was financially very successful, happily married, and got children. However, soon after, three of his children died in childhood, his wife died at age 32, and he faced financial difficulties.

​As illustrated by the current painting, Rembrandt was very good in painting human emotions. He painted many realistic self-portraits during his life in which his face reflects his state of mind and the events in his life. Rembrandt’s most famous work is The Night Watch in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. However, he has also painted an occasional mythological work of very high quality, like The Abduction of Europa in the Getty Museum. ​

The Night Watch by Rembrandt

The Abduction of Europa by Rembrandt

Fun fact: Look at the hands of the father in this painting. They are quite different. His right hand has a lighter color than the left hand. And, the fingers on the right hand are longer and thinner than those on the left hand. The right hand is feminine, and the left hand is masculine. The reason for these differences has been debated quite a bit over the years, and the main explanation is that the hands represent both the hand of the father and the mother of the prodigal son as God can assume both roles for us.

​Interested in a copy for yourself? Poster or canvas

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Written by Eelco Kappe

References:

• Kuretsky, Susan Donahue (2007), “The Return of the Prodigal Son and Rembrandt’s Creative Process,” Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies, 27, 23-37.
• Mullins, Edwin B. and Reiner Moritz (1993), “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” video recording, ArtHaus Musik, Germany.
• Parsons, Mikeal C. and Heidi Hornik (2013), “ON Art,” Christian Century, 130(19), 47.